Johnny Rocketfingers

Tarantino cocked the hammer, but it was the internet that pulled the trigger. A vast and barely regulated means of expression blossomed into life a decade ago and three quarters of the western population saw an opportunity that they couldn't pass up.

The groundswell of hysterical vulgarity that rose through the first forums quickly became a tidal wave of hilarious scandal and crashed into the mainstream, shattering taboos and leaving shows like South Park and Family Guy in its foamy wake.

Originally a Flash game, Johnny Rocketfingers is a product of the internet's free and lawless state. Not only is it sordid and randomly violent, but it has a cool, carefully unkempt artsy suaveness that suspends it, in principle, from accusations of sexist and sociopathic thuggery. Like Sin City, for example, it's all in black and white, aside from occasional splashes of crimson.

The visual identity of the game is that of a child's pencil drawing, and it's difficult to decide whether this aesthetic choice demonstrates artistry or laziness. The lapses in spelling and weak characterisation, on the other hand, are certainly not deliberate, and they show up Johnny Rocketfingers for what it is: a competent but insubstantial game produced by a talented but untutored amateur.

Johnny Rocketfingers is an adventure game, in every screen of which you're presented with choices. In the opening moments, a woman bursts into the bar where you're drinking and asks you to help rescue her child:

1. 'This trash just interrupted your smoke… you gonna let that fly?'
2. 'You need the money… accept the whiney little sh*t's offer'
3. Get this b*tch out of your face'
4. 'Go to sleep.'

If you choose 3, for instance, Johnny murders the young mother with a liquor bottle and is immediately killed himself by armed police.

Yep, it's like that.

Generally, there's only one proper response or action that will get you to the next screen, and the right one is always obvious. As a result, making your selections isn't about solving puzzles so much as watching to see what happens when you deliberately propel Johnny towards a violent death.

Although Johnny Rocketfingers has the appearance of a full, if brief, adventure game, there's actually very little freedom to interact with your environment. For instance, at one point you need to distract an enemy with a doll in order to hit him with a plank. Throw down the doll and the plank automatically appears in Johnny's hand, poised aggressively, destroying any illusion of choice.

Every screen that Johnny visits contains such a narrow range of objects and possible actions that the whole brief adventure boils down to little more than an on-screen comic in which you have the option, from time to time, of turning a page.

Not being much of a game, then, the appeal of Johnny Rocketfingers lies almost entirely in its savvy obscenity. The game characterises this as 'suppish'ness, even going so far as to provide an extensive definition of the word in the help pages: Adj. "suppish" supp-ish. 1. So cool that a person seems sleepy. 2. Abnormally slick. 3. Stealthy, sly.

Just don't try using it in an essay.

If you look up Johnny Rocketfingers online you can find an illustrated breakdown of things that are suppish and things that aren't. Sitting up straight and smiling isn't; slouching miserably is. Playing tennis isn't; leaning against the net and sleazing over a woman is. Cuddling a happy girl in a bed and saying 'I love you' isn't; instructing a traumatised girl to 'get out' is.

How much you enjoy Johnny Rocketfingers will depend on where you situate the line between happily insolent and unpleasantly distasteful. It's a pass-around giggle at best, an argument with your girlfriend at worst. At least there's the option to go online and try before you buy.